The inventive concept relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to a method of manufacturing a non-volatile memory semiconductor device including phase change material.
Non-volatile semiconductor memory devices are used in a variety of electronic products for their ability to retain stored data even when the power supplied to the product is turned off. One recently developed type of non-volatile semiconductor memory device is a phase change memory device that has memory material whose phase or “state” can be changed, e.g., between amorphous and crystalline states. The state of the memory material can be equated with a logic state of the device or otherwise corresponds to the data stored by the device. That is, the state of the memory material can be read as a value of data stored by the device and the state of the device can be changed to program or write data onto the device.
The demands of today's electronic products require that their non-volatile semiconductor memory devices operate at high speeds, be highly integrated, and have long lifespans. Accordingly, non-volatile phase change memory devices must include phase change material that can quickly and repeatedly change its state over many cycles, i.e., over a high number of write operations.